Getting defensive

What looked at first like a one-game experiment of Jason Strudwick being paired with Marc Staal at defense may actually extend into tomorrow night. Paul Mara and Thomas Pock were both the extra pair today in practice, and Tom Renney said that’s the way he was leaning for his lineup against the Islanders.

It’s an odd situation for Mara: He is currently the Rangers’ highest paid defensemen at $3 million a season but is now potentially relegated to the press box for the second straight game. What makes it even stranger is the fact that he left a conversation with Renney yesterday feeling like he had returned to the coach’s good graces.

“I did yesterday,” the defenseman said. “I’m definitely disapppointed. I’m always disappointed when I don’t play, but it’s a coach’s decision. Tom said he was doing the best that he sees for this team. I’ll just have to live with it.”

Mara said in their conversation Renney made no implication that there was anything lacking in his game, something Renney repeated to us today as well. The coach mentioned he likes Strudwick’s toughness and the “calming influence” he has on Staal. Maybe there is something to that, but there obviously is something about Mara right now that makes him less than a must in the lineup.

And you wonder if the Rangers have room on their roster for a guy that makes that much money and doesn’t even play.

Some other thoughts:

The lines were the same today, with Blair Betts centering the third line and Brandon Dubinsky between Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg on the fourth. Don’t expect anyone to be called up from Hartford anytime soon. Renney said right now it’s not a priority.

Scott Gomez’s father Carlos was at the rink watching practice today. To fully fit the hockey parent mold, he should have approached Renney afterward and asked why his son wasn’t on the first line. Disappointingly, he did no such thing.

There is apparently no middle ground with the Rangers’ choice in music. If it’s not ear-splitting techno, it was today’s odd selection of “Easy” by Lionel Richie. No truth to the rumor the team is considering it as a warm-up song.

The lead hockey and golf writer for The Journal News and LoHud.com, Sam Weinman, 33, has placed among the top three in the Golf Writers Association of America writing contest in three consecutive years, including a first-place finish in 2004. In 2005, his golf coverage also led to a top-five finish in The Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest, his third such finish in the past five years.
A native of Rye and an avid hockey player since he was 5 years old, Weinman is a 1996 graduate of the University of New Hampshire.
He lives in Port Chester with his wife, Lisa, and sons Charlie and Will.